I don’t know about you, but I can only focus for so long. As I work on this blog, I am stopping a few times to stretch my neck muscles, check The Mailbox Facebook page, look to see what feature I need to write next for the magazine, apply hand lotion, and take a slurp of my overly sweetened latte. I also fidget. I’m big on fidgeting. As adults, we know how much we may need brain breaks, and we all know that students need them even more.
Brain breaks can help your kids be more focused during instruction time. An overload of information and too much sitting does nothing to help students absorb the needed material. The best brain breaks use movement and novelty. I like to think of all those little brains giving a sigh of relief during a brain break!
What constitutes a good brain break? How about stretching, reading from an engaging book, jumping up and down, or singing a silly song? Here are some brain breaks you can try with your youngsters:
Cut out these exercise cards and place them in a container. Have a child choose a card and roll a die. Have students complete the exercise the appropriate number of times.
Your students will get a kick out of this fun little song!
I recommend singing this song and then having students name and then act out verbs!